Robinsons reward
by Syphon01
Summary: a different History of Pern if Robinton's honeymoon journey went south rather than north


Robinsons Reward

Robinton and his new wife Kasia travelled south instead of north on their honeymoon voyage.

The couple are caught in a major storm and their ship is wrecked and they end up in the water.

The shipfish come to Robinton and Kasia's rescue and drag the couple out of the sea and to the shore near the former Paradise River hold.

After having recovered from their near death experience Robinson realizes that they had ended up on the southern continent.

Further investigation lets them find ancient structures that Robinton and Kasia use for shelter.

Robinton is trying to trap an animal for food while Kasia is clearing out the ancient structures that they discovered had been called Paradise River hold on a metallic plaque that was badly weathered.

While he lay in wait with his impromptu spear he thought back to their rescue by the shipfish.

He was sure that the shipfish were speaking to them encouraging them to hang on and they'd be safe.

Kasia had stated that he had just imagined it due to the stress of the moment.

Still the presence of the ancient structures proved that the ancient records that stated man took hold in the south before moving north appeared to be true.

If that is the case then Robinton wondered what else might be hidden on the southern continent waiting to be rediscovered.

As he pondered this a wild herd beast entered his trap and Robinton lunged with his makeshift spear impaling the herd beast.

The herd beast ran off but from the amount of blood on the ground Robinton was sure it was fatally wounded and he only had to follow the trail of blood.

As Robinton used his belt knife to cut chunks of meat which he thin place into the transparent container Kasia had found in the ancient buildings he thought he heard something moving in the high grasses.

Looking around Robinton saw the grass move and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Thinking discretion is the better part of valor he collected the meat he had already cut and quickly moved away from the carcass and back towards the hold he and Kasia had started.

He had travelled no more than a few dragon lengths when he heard a roar and saw a massive feline pounce on the carcass of the herd beast he had just abandoned.

Thinking of his near death experience Robinton decided that perhaps it might be better if they caught some of the calves of the herd beasts and tried to domesticate them as he didn't fancy being a meal to one of those large felines.

Robinton didn't particularly mind being marooned on the Southern continent with Kasia.

They made love at night and explored during the day.

He and Kasia were walking along a beach when they saw a mythical fire lizard trying to protect her clutch from the incoming storm surge.

In moments Robinton and Kasia had raced to the clutch and using one of the containers that held their scant belongings carried the hardening eggs to a position far above the highest water line where they transferred the eggs to a new clutching site.

But what the queen fire lizard didn't know was that Kasia and Robinton kept a few fire lizard eggs for themselves that they placed in the warm sands near where they built their nightly fires.

Both had always dreamed of having a fire lizard like many others but now they thought that they might have a chance to actually have one as a pet.

A seven days later Kasia and Robinton are preparing to break their fast when Kasia notices that their fire lizard clutch is moving.

She called to Robinton and together they uncover the clutch to discover that the five eggs are hatching.

Grabbing the fish they had caught for their breakfast bother waited with food in hand for the eggs to hatch.

Robinton had told Kasia that dragons always hatched hungry and he assumed that fire lizards wouldn't be different.

Before long Kasia had a gold, green and blue fire lizard while Robinton had a bronze and a brown.

Little did they know at the time but these fire lizards were descendants of those original fire lizards the colonists of Pern had used genetic metasynth enhancement on to increase their communication abilities.

Much like what had been done to the Dolphin colonists of Pern.

Robinton had had his fire lizards the bronze Zair and brown Spear for a few seven days when Zair and Spear just seemed to disappear only to return in the company of a strange fire lizard queen.

The queen seemed to be checking up on his fire lizards and when Zair returned to him Robinton got the distinct impression from Zair that the fire lizard queen was his mother.

Kasia realised that for the first time since she and Rob had been marooned on the Southern continent that she had missed her monthly cycle.

Knowing how regular she was Kasia was excited that she was most likely with child.

She couldn't wait to tell Rob when he returned from his attempt to capture an immature herd beast.

They didn't have any real problem feeding themselves as there were plenty of wild fruits and vegetables and the fish were plentiful in the bay and river.

Her only concern was that neither she nor Rob and any spare clothes so how would she be able to properly dress the baby.

Robinton was stunned when Kasia advised him that she was likely pregnant.

This only lasted for a moment before he was overtaken with joy at the prospect of being a father.

Then it dawned on him that he couldn't properly support his wife and child while they were marooned on the southern continent.

Robinton wondered how he could get Kasia and him home and the only answer that came to him was on dragon back.

Thinking of dragons Robinton remembered that his fire lizards went between to the wild fire lizard queen and Robinton realized that they had communicated happiness and joy at showing him to their mother.

It then dawned on Robinton that he could send one of his fire lizards to Benden Weyr and it could tell Simanith where they were and Simanith would tell F'lon.

Simanith looked at his little cousin as it projected a picture of Robinton at a sea side bay.

He knew his rider F'lon missed his friend and now Simanith knew that Robinton was alive.

Even though it was very early in the morning Benden time he summoned his rider F'lon with the news that fire lizards still existed and that the little bronze fire lizard Zair knew where Robinton was.

Taking the visual reference from the fire lizard Simanith took F'lon to the coordinates of Robinton's location.

Robinton was surprised when F'lon and Simanith accompanied by Zair appeared in the evening sky above Paradise River Hold.

Once F'lon has dismounted, he and Robinton hug like the long lost friends they are and then they walk to the hold proper so that F'lon can be reintroduced to Kasia.

And an explanation on how they impressed the fire lizards and the reason for his summons.

After spending a couple of hours with Kasia and Robinton F'lon returned to Benden Weyr for riding gear and new clothing for Robinton and Kasia and promised to return tomorrow to transport them back to the Harper Hall.

Robinton and Kasia were welcomed back to the Harper Hall with open arms.

Robinton's mother Merelan was ecstatic that Robinton and Kasia had survived and was over the moon when she discovered that Kasia was carrying her grandchild.

Masterharper Gennell too was glad for the return of the prodigal couple but he was even more interested in the report Robinton supplied on the Southern continent.

He was more than aware that the Harper hall and Weyrfolk have fallen into disfavour from most of the major and minor holders of Pern.

And the Southern continent could provide the Harper Hall and Weyrfolk an unrivalled opportunity to no longer be dependent on holds and halls that no longer favoured them.

Gennell decided to discuss this matter with the Weyrleader to see if the Weyr and Harper Hall could cooperate on creating holdings of their own on the Southern continent.

F'lon was fascinated by the suggestion of Masterharper Gennell that the harper Hall and Weyr take hold on the Southern continent.

It would certainly ease the strain between the Harper Hall, Weyrfolk and the holders of Pern's northern continent all the better.

F'lon immediately sent dragons to the coordinated he had collected Robinton from and had them fly in exploration to gather coordinates for other destinations on the Southern continent.

He agreed with Masterharper Gennell that Paradise River would be a holding for the Harper Hall and the Harper Hall and Weyr would share what else was discovered on the southern continent.

Robinson smiled as he cradled his new born son Robsia in his arms while the midwife finished the birthing with Kasia.

Both he and Kasia were happy that Robinson had gained his mastery and was to be craftmaster at Paradise River Harper hold.

Already harpers who had come from farmer, miner and beast holds had been secretly sent south to improve on what Robinton and Kasia had started.

As the midwife left Kasia held her arms out for her son and Robinton immediately handed Robsia over to his dotting mother while his mother Merelan hovered nearby to offer any help and support that Kasia might require.

The fire Lizards had been kept a closely guarded secret between the Harper Hall and Benden Weyr.

They were often used to send messages to and from the harper hall and the Benden and southern weyrs.

This made communications between the hall and weyrs fast and easy.

Harper Michelessa was proud to be a Harper and of direct Ruathan bloodline.

Knowing that Ruatha was getting overcrowded and with the permission of Masterharper Gennell he approached his father Lord Ashmichel of Ruatha hold for members of the blood who could hold lands for the Harper hall.

Considering the situation and not wanting the feuds for succession he sent his younger sons and their spouses to the Harper Hall for them to hold minor holdings under the control of the Harper hall.

He kept the existence of Harper and Weyr holdings on the Southern Continent secret so that he could continue to find minor holding for any younger sons of Ruatha.

F'lon was enjoying the companionship of his Weyrwoman Jora, as his Bronze dragon Simanith flew her gold Nemorth.

This was the second mating flight of Nemorth since most of the Weyr had flown south to the Southern Continent.

With the help of the Harper Hall and indirectly Ruatha Hold the Weyr was looking at approaching full strength for the first time in hundreds of turns.

His only problem was getting Jora to control her dragon properly.

Still a couple more mating flights and soon he would have to send more dragons back to Benden Weyr so that Southern Weyr doesn't become over crowded.

At least they didn't have to worry about feeding the Weyr as the wild herd and runner beasts not to mention the felines provided plenty of food for the Weyr and dragons alike.

Robinton and Kasia were back at the Paradise River Harper Hold.

The Harper Hold had expanded greatly since they had left.

Now Robinton and his family had they own dwelling large enough for any future additions to their family.

The only thing concerning Robinton was Masterharper Gennell's statement of intent for Robinton to replace Gennell as Masterharper when the time arrives for him to be replaced.

F'lon was baffled by what one of his dragonriders had discovered on their flight of exploration.

So baffled was he that he requested Robinton come with him to view the discovery.

Robinton stared at the sight before him with strange anticipation.

Nowhere in nature where there continuous straight lines so whatever made them must be manmade.

As he pondered this development his fire lizards Zair and Spear started projecting to him the strangest images of people running scared with volcanoes erupting in the background.

Robinton wondered where these images were coming from as his fire lizards hadn't been near a volcano where people had been escaping from.

Both he and Kasia had noticed that their fire lizards seemed far more intelligent than the pets that had thought to be.

Now they seemed to be projecting racial memories of long ago as the people were wearing strange clothes and had even stranger machines.

But most startling of all was how small the dragons were that these images portrayed.

The dragons in the fire lizards memories were small in fact the queen dragon wasn't even the size of a current green dragon.

At Paradise River harper hold Kasia and Robsia were swimming in the bay when shipfish swam up to them.

Kasia was startled when the shipfish spoke to her and said in a barely understandable language, "You have babee inside, Babee time is good time." It then continued by saying, "will you scrab blufish?"

Still somewhat stunned, Kasia asked, "What is blufish?"

When she said this the shipfish rolled onto its side and displayed a sucker fish firmly attached to it.

Kasia immediately recognised as a bloodfish which attached itself to open wounds to suck on the blood.

She knew that her spouse Robinton needed to know that the shipfish could talk.

She and Robinton had always thought that they were imagining the words spoken to then when they were rescued by the shipfish.

Now they had spoken to her again and Robinton needed to know.

F'lon looked at the eggs hardening in the sands of Southern Weyr.

This was the third clutch since most of the dragons had relocated from Benden Weyr.

He was glad that he was able to force Jora to control Nemorth and the evidence was there on the hatching grounds a second golden queen egg the second in three clutches Nemorth had laid since coming to Southern Hold.

It also indicated that the Red Star would be returning soon as Queen dragons always had more frequent and larger clutches when the Red Star approached.

Robinton was surprised when Kasia insisted that they go to the cove that evening to meet the shipfish that frolicked there.

Strangely she insisted that he take a knife with him even though as a sea holder she knew that shipfish were protected.

When he reached the cove the shipfish were already waiting for them frolicking in the water though when the approached the shore the shipfish swam closer to the shore of the cove.

But Robinton was surprised when the shipfish started speaking garbled yet understandable words.

He was struck dumb when one shipfish by the name of Alta that insisted that they be called dolphins.

It was Alta's next comment of, "Are the mans back at Landing near Monaco Bay where the original settlement was?"

Robinton just fell to the sand in disbelief.

The shipfish or dolphins knew of the original settlement of Pern and it also answered the question of the oldest scrolls that mention that man took hold in the south then moved north for safety.

Before he could even process this thought Alta continued by saying, "Scrab blufish?"

And then rolled over to show the sucking bloodfish parasite firmly attached to her belly.

Robinton and Kasia then spent the rest of the evening till dust removing the bloodfish parasites from the Paradise River dolphin pod.

Robinton and F'lon were flying on the great Bronze dragon Simanith over what Robinton had learned from the dolphins was the original settlement of Pern.

Now that he knew what he was looking at it was obvious that the large hold of Landing had been buried and lost from memory.

Not knowing where to start Robinton pointed F'lon to the largest mound as something that large had to hold something important.

Once they had landed Robinton and F'lon started digging and even Simanith took an interest and using his forearms and claws started tearing at the grass and soil covered mount.

Robinton and F'lon started at the strange glass like panel they had uncovered.

At first they though it was only a single curiosity but as Simanith continued to dig more of the glass like panels started to be uncovered.

Deciding that they needed help Robinton decided to contact a smith he knew at Telgar smithcraft hall.

He was sure that Fandarel if anybody would be able to help solve the riddle they had uncovered.

AIVAS noticed the increase in power reserves from its solar collectors and started to shunt the increased power to dormant systems since it went into core integrity preservation mode.

As more and more solar power collectors were uncovered it determined that this wasn't an act of nature, weather and wind would occasionally unblock parts of the solar panels, allowing it to maintain core integrity.

Now it appeared to be a workman like effort indicating that humans had returned to Landing after 2500 years.

For now all AIVAS could do was prepare itself for when the humans fully uncovered its premises and then it could attempt to fulfil the instructions it was provided by Admiral Benden and Governor Boll; the eradication of the threat posed to Pern by the organism known as Thread.

Mastersmith Fandarel was fascinated by what the Harpers and Dragonriders had discovered.

The glass panels were obvious some kind of advanced machine and they had connections that ran through the roof into whatever was still hidden by the passage of time.

He decided that the first action must be the complete uncovering of this dwelling and doing a proper investigation commenced on what it held.

The southern continent held so much potential that Fandarel recommended that all the craft halls not just the Harper Hall and Dragonriders be given preference in the southern continent.

Thought he did admit that the Harper Hall and Dragonriders had lost most of their influence during the current extended interval.

He did recommend that any coming to the southern continent had to tithe both people and goods to the Harper Hall and Weyr for the greater good of Pern.


End file.
